A well-timed investment in _oil stock_,—a lucky turn of the wheel,—and Captain John Simms awoke, one morning, with one hundred thousands dollars! He did not believe it at first, and Susan did not believe it either. But when John, who, with all his good sense, was a little given to show, or, as his mother expressed it, “to making a fool of himself,” brought her a set of diamonds, handsomer than Rose Mather’s, and bought her a new carriage, and took her to Saratoga, with an English nurse for little Ike, she began to realize that something had happened to her which brought Rose Mather’s envied style of living within her means. She soon grew tired of Saratoga. She was too much alone in that great crowd, and when she heard that the Carletons were at New London she went there with her diamonds and horses, and, patronized by Rose, who took her at once under her protection, she made a few pleasant acquaintances, and ever after talked confidently of her “summer at the sea-side.” She did not care to go again, however. “She and John were not exactly like people born to high life,” she said, and so she settled quietly down in her pretty home, and made, as the Widow Simms said, “quite a decent woman, considerin’ that she was one of them Ruggleses.” * * * * * Bill Baker was astir very early one bright, October morning, his face indicating that some important event was pending in which he was to act a part. It was a double wedding at St. Luke’s, and Maude and Annie were the brides. There was a great crowd to witness the ceremony, and Annie’s “boys” whom she had nursed at Annapolis, were the first to offer their congratulations to Mrs. James Carleton, who looked so fair and pure and lovely, while Maude, whose beauty was of a more brilliant order, seemed to sparkle and flash as she bent her stately head in response to the greetings given to her. Upon Bill, who had turned hack-driver, devolved the honor of taking the bridal party to and from the church, and his horses were covered with the Federal flag, while conspicuous in his button-hole was a small one made of white silk and presented to him by a girl whom he called “Em,” and who blushed every time she heard Bill’s voice ordering the crowd to stand back and his horses to “show their oats,” as he drove from the church with the newly-married people. Their destination was Nashville, where, in Maude’s beautiful home, Jimmie and Annie passed a few delightful weeks, and then returned to Boston to the old Carleton house on Beacon Street, which had been fitted up for their reception. Mrs. Carleton, senior, divides her time between her three children, Tom, Jimmie and Rose, but her home proper is with Annie, in Boston, where there is now a little “Lulu Graham,” six months old, and where Rose and Will often go, while each summer Tom Carleton comes up from Fair Oaks with his beautiful Maude, the heroine of the Cumberland Mountains.